Friday workout:
Run – 2 miles and striders (Friday is usually my day off, but I wanted to shake out the legs a little bit before the race on Saturday)

Saturday workout:
Run – 9.25 miles (1 mile warm up, 4 mile race, 4.25 mile “cool down”/add on to get my long run for the week in)
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Yesterday I ran the Four Courts Four Miler with my wonderful friend Emilee!

The weather was a lot colder than I expected, and the course a lot more hilly than I expected, but I still had a great race!

I went into this race just wanting to have fun, which meant I didn’t really do any research about the course before hand. I knew there was “a hill” and that it was an out and back course, but that’s about it.

BOY was there a hill. Whew. Here is the elevation chart from my Garmin (the first 1.02 mile was my warm up, so miles 2-5 were the race):

My original plan going into the race was to start out around 8:00 minute mile pace and then try to pick up the pace from there, but that was BEFORE I realized that the first mile was all downhill (and therefore the last mile would be ALL uphill).

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to take you through a race in the mind of Erin:).

Mile 1 (7:20) — Very steep and long downhill for the entire mile

– WOW, this hill is reallllllly long and steep…so much for starting out slow, I better take advantage of the hill while I’m running down it! Wheeeee!!

– Oh my gosh, this hill just keeps going and going…I am going to have to run UP this whole thing **whimper**–No! Don’t think about that now, just enjoy the downhill–I feel great!

– (Look at my watch and see my pace) Hmm, well that’s good and I feel great, but will I be able to hold this pace for four miles? Should I slow down? Not on the downhill anyway!

Mile 2 (7:29) — Some uphill/flat, but mostly gradual downhill

– (Look at my watch again) Hmm, I don’t think I can hold 7:30 pace the rest of the way–should I slow down? No! I feel great and I might die at the end but it’s only a local 4 miler, who cares! Go for it!

Mile 3 (7:31) — Gradual uphill with a short downhill/some flat

– Okay, this is starting to hurt a little bit, but I still feel pretty good even though this is starting to go uphill a little bit….and I’m passing some people–woo!

– Okay, hurting a little bit more–time to focus on my music! A perfect time for “Don’t Hold Back” to come on!

– “Doooooont hold back! Is there anybody out thereeeee feeling somethinggggggg!” (Song lyrics–this is one of my favorite running songs, and it’s great for hills!)

– (Looking at the never-ending hill in front of me) Oh my gosh! Don’t look up again or you’ll cry, just look 10 feet in front of you and just keep putting one foot in front of the other!

– Wow, this hill is so bad that some of these MEN are walking!! I’m tougher than you, and you, and definitely YOU!!! (FYI, I’m not usually this cocky, but you gotta talk yourself up that hill however you can!:)

-Whew, okay! I made it up the first and longest hill, now I get a little flat ground to recover, and it’s just one short hill to the finish! Awesome!

– Okay, I can see the finish! Time to kick it up a notch and–oh, no, no notches left….oh my gosh…not awesome…why is this hill so steep….oh no….I am going to puuuuuke…just keep going, 200 more meters…no puuuukinggggg!!!!!

– Oh no, Eric is taking my picture and I have the “this really hurts and I might puke face” but there’s nothing I can do about it!! (Lucky for me his timing was a bit off:)

Well, that was an overview of what went on in my mind during the race–Haha! Despite feeling pretty crummy the last couple of minutes I felt really good the rest of the time and was pretty happy with my performance.

I was really happy with having mile splits around 7:30 for the first three miles and the last one of 8:10 was pretty good considering it was literally one giant hill. Plus I felt good because I was passing a lot of people, including the people that were WALKING (that’s how bad the hill was).

I was even more happy to celebrate my run with some good food when I got home! I made Eric and I some flat bread pizzas with red onion, red pepper, olives, and avocado!

Soooo good! I made this with my most-favorite-ist wraps that I can NOT find at the grocery stores around me but was able to pick up SIX packs of them when I was up in MD on Friday (they were on sale and like I said, I can’t find them by me, so I bought six and put a bunch in the freezer).

They are Flat Out brand wraps and the light versions only have 90 to 100 calories, 9 grams of fiber, 0 grams sugar, and 9 grams of protein. Plus they taste like bread instead of tortilla…I love them!

I also had some of the awesome cookies my lovely coworkers bought me for my birthday!! They are pumpkin and lemon drop flavored. Mmmm.

This post is getting long so I’ll leave you with that for now!! More to come later on the rest of my weekend adventures with cooking and my birthday dinner with friends:).
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Do you guys have to talk yourself through your races?
-I’m pretty sure all races I have an internal dialogue going on with myself. I often have to calm myself down or tell myself not to worry about things (like hills, possible cramps coming on, possible stomach aches, etc.).

Do you listen to music when you run/race?
-If I’m by myself I will almost always run with my iPod on regular runs. Some races I don’t wear it and some I do–I don’t really have a thought process for this, it’s just whatever I feel like!:) I did not wear one for the marathon (they were illegal, which they are for most races and people don’t usually care, but the last thing I wanted to do was finish my marathon and find out I was disqualified!).

6 Responses to A Race in the Mind of Erin

I love the commentary 🙂 And I LOVE passing men on hills. Haha – one of the triathlons I’ve done, the run was through sand and VERY hilly. It was rough. But I ran the whole thing, even when the majority were walking the hills. Love it! And way to rock that hill!

I used to never run with music, because I love to just think and be free. But now I run with it every once in a while…it just depends on the day!